Maya Washburn / News Director
Students living at the Modesto Maidique Campus dorms are losing money and time as they await replacements for out-of-order washing machines and dryers.
Students run machines and come back to find that they don’t work, causing them to pay again and spend more time waiting on the loads.
About half of all washing machines are broken at Parkview Hall.
Sydney Simmons, a junior studying informational technology and Parkview Hall resident, said that she expects to lose money when she does laundry.
“I usually do my laundry as soon as I get paid because if I wait until my next pay period I’m not going to have enough to do my laundry,” said Simmons. “I lose money and I have to be prepared. The majority of the time, I lose at least a dollar or two.”
Andrew Naylor, senior director of housing, told PantherNOW that all washers and dryers were set to be replaced over the summer, but the effects of the pandemic have led to a supply chain shortage at the vendor, CSC ServiceWorks.
The vendor couldn’t access enough computer chips or other parts needed to replace the machines in time.
Washers and dryers in University Towers and University Apartments were replaced in Dec. 2021. Lakeview will receive replacements next on Feb. 22.
However, Everglades, Parkview and Panther Halls await replacements.
Naylor hopes all machines on campus will be replaced by the end of the spring semester.
“I can tell you that I lived on campus for a week and had to use one of the laundry rooms and experience many of the things that the residents experience,” said Naylor. “I let the vendor know straight from my mouth because I had to use these machines.”
Parkview resident Cristhofer Lugo said the virtual system doesn’t correctly reflect which machines work or not, and has a hard time getting his laundry done.
“The washers literally look like they’re falling apart, and the dryers look perfectly fine, but they don’t dry,” said Lugo. “The ones that look good are not good.”
He said that after running his clothes in the dryer for an hour, the clothes were still wet. He had to run it again, costing him another hour and another $1.25.
“I tried to get a refund [by calling the help number] but it didn’t work,” said Lugo. “I think I could have put in a request online, but it’s just too much hassle, especially for $1.25.”
